Effective use of social media in the B2B space is a somewhat uneven experience – some firms excel at it, but frequently it’s driven by staffers who are fans and then can just as easily drop off when those employees are promoted or leave the firm.

Social media can also serve as an effective means of generating business leads, but the top platforms were not designed with business marketing in mind, hence the need to turn to CRM for a solution.

Seattle-based CRM platform Socedo has added a series of enhancements to its existing functionality intended to enhance its effectiveness as a social media tool for B2B marketers. Its technology complements organic social media activity by connecting users with an audience that shows interest in their brand or their competitors.

In particular, Socedo enables companies to make better use of Twitter, helping them to engage continuously with their audience on Twitter and adding new leads from Twitter to email marketing campaigns.

Socedo’s new features cover a wide range of functionality. The company has added the ability to set up searches based on biographical, locational and conversational key words and to identify contacts that fit a company’s target job title or key roles. It can now be used to connect with active audiences in order to influence them earlier in the business cycle.

Other features include a keyword suggestions tool that can truncate the time required to set up good criteria. It has also added a new search engine that is tailored to the needs of B2B businesses. It can now search Twitter and locate possible prospects based on who is following and retweeting other handles.

Socedo is compatible with a number of other CRM platforms, including Salesforce CRM and Pardot, Oracle Eloqua, HubSpot and Marketo. It functions as a SaaS platform with a monthly pricing structure. Pricing is based on how many leads with corporate email addresses a user wants to synch with their marketing automation system.

Key Takeaways:

· Engagement with social media within the B2B market remains uneven, with many B2B sellers missing critical opportunities for sourcing new business.

· Platforms like Socedo fill that critical gap that lies between vanilla CRM and social media.

· As the social media space becomes an increasingly critical source of leads and a forum for interaction with potential clients, so marketing teams are seeking solutions that will allow them to use it effectively.